Sunday, 5 January 2014

Introduction

Ubuntu is the "Marmite" operating system within the Linux community. You either love it or hate it.

This review is aimed at the Everyday Linux User target audience which is the guy that uses his computer for common home and desktop tasks such as surfing the internet, watching movies, listening to music and socialising online.

Install Ubuntu 13.10 on its own

As we enter 2014 I am going to talk less and less about the option of dual booting as this really is something only a small subset of people really need to do.

If you want to try Ubuntu before committing full time then use Oracle Virtualbox within Windows and boot Ubuntu as a virtual machine or try the Live DVD with persistence until you are ready to commit.

Ubuntu is better than Windows 8. Ubuntu is better than Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP. With that in mind do you really need Windows on your computer. Unless there is a key piece of software that you use at home that doesn't run on Linux then you can dump Windows for good.

To install Ubuntu on its own all you have to do is:

1. Boot your computer from the DVD or USB drive
2. Run the Ubuntu Installer
3. Select your timezone, keyboard layout and language
4. Enter a default username and password
5. At the point of partitioning the easiest way to install Ubuntu is to select the replace your existing operating system option.
6. Leave the bootloader to install to /dev/SDA

Ubuntu will install to your drive and you will be up and running. People who think that installing Ubuntu is difficult should compare a Ubuntu install to a Windows installation. (That includes all versions from Windows 95 to Windows 8).

Note: Before following these steps you should back up any files that you wish to keep and make a Windows recovery disk in case you change your mind

If you thought that Windows 8 was the only operating system without a traditional menu then you would be wrong. Ubuntu dispenses with a menu by introducing the Dash.

To bring up the Dash you can either press the "Super" key (Windows icon on most computers) or click the first icon on the launcher.

The view may seem confusing at first but once you get used to it you will appreciate its beauty (or not).

Along the bottom of the screen are a series of icons (known as lenses) which determine the display that you see within the Dash. The lenses available by default are:

Home

Applications

Files

Video

Audio

Images

Social

The Home lens includes a search bar, a row of recently used applications, 3 rows of recently used files.

You will notice in the top right corner a filter results option. Clicking on the filter results lets you narrow down the results.

When you search using the Dash you will receive both online results and results local to your computer and therein lies another of the reasons that Ubuntu is a "Marmite" distribution. Some people aren't that keen on their privacy being interrupted outside of their web browser.

You can turn off the online results by going into the privacy settings and turning off the "include online results when searching in the Dash".

Get work done in style with LibreOffice 4.0, now with new, modern presentation
templates and built-in support for Ubuntu's integrated menu bar.

Is Ubuntu 13.10 for you?

If you are a Windows user then definitely give it a go. Try it out in a virtual machine first and commit to giving it a real go. I am 100% sure that you won't regret leaving Windows behind.

If you are using a version of Ubuntu prior to Ubuntu 12.04 then you need to at least move to Ubuntu 12.04 otherwise you are unsupported.

If you are using Ubuntu 12.04 should you upgrade to 13.10? Well that is a judgement call. If you need the support and you aren't too bothered by the new features in Ubuntu 12.10, Ubuntu 13.04 and Ubuntu 13.10 then you can stay where you are. The performance does seem to be much better in Ubuntu 13.10 and there is a level of natural progression.

If you are using Ubuntu 12.10 or Ubuntu 13.04 then you are already away from the LTS release so you may as well upgrade just to keep up to date.

If you are using any other version of Linux then I can't believe you haven't tried Ubuntu at some stage. If your only attempt at using Ubuntu was during the version 11 releases then give it another go. It is much better than it was back then.

Remember you can still get all the good things that Ubuntu brings but without some of the "Marmite" features by using a derivative such as Xubuntu or Kubuntu.

Thankyou for reading.

Also check out these reviews

To make it easier for everyone who wants to read my Ubuntu based articles and tutorials I have formatted them, rewritten them and added extra content which has resulted in the eBook "From Windows To Ubuntu".

The book isn't massive like a SAMS guide so it isn't going to take you forever to read it but there is certainly a lot of content.

A very complete review! I'm impressed. Shame you will not be talking about dual booting Linux/Windows anymore but that opens a place in the blogosphere ecosystem so maybe someone picks up that interesting topic, now that Windows XP is coming to an end and users could be tempted to install Linux alongside XP to surf the web safely, use Multimedia and Office apps and keep XP for gaming and the odd app but this is me dreaming about Linux getting some of the XP crowd but I've seen how your post about dual booting Ubuntu/Windows 8 is popular online... Anyway this is an excellent review of Ubuntu 13.10 and I'll recommend it to my friends that want to know more about Ubuntu and all things Linux.

I installed Ubuntu 13.10 yesterday having used Windows 7 for a few years and XP before that and am very happy so far.I tried Ubuntu a long time ago and gave up as I found it impossible to install anything not in the software centre.I'm impressed that I have already successfully installed Sopcast, rubyripper and Pipelight(to watch Sky Go which I had thought impossible until today) relatively painlessly. I now have no reason to go back to Windows.Thanks for the review. I didn't know about the Windows button or turning off online results, both of which I am now using.I did find the icons on the left cluttered and messy but having now got rid of the stuff I won't use and putting useful things there instead (terminal, show desktop, Thunderbird etc.) I can see the value of it.

I often wonder whether the bods at Microsoft look at Ubuntu and think "That is essentially what we were trying to do with Windows". I can really see Ubuntu working on multiple devices seemlessly and it is intuitive unlike Windows 8